information aesthetics

An Animated Infographic Annual Report

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:42:46 +1100

Dan Meyer's infographically translated statistics about the year 2009 shows an original and animated view on the now popular practice of publishing one's life as data. The data contains several dozen statistics about the pop culture he consumed, the people he talked to, the (Belgian...) beer he drank, the places he visited, the vehicles he took to those places, and the amount of sleep he enjoyed each day. These statistics was spread across several thousand cells of a spreadsheet, which were then condensed and animated into the 2.5-minute video clip.

As one commenter smartly puts it, animating one's statistics might become a potential new feature for services like Daytum, Mycrocosm, Nebul.us, EyeBrowse, Personas, and the like.

Watch the movie below.

More information at the author's blog post. Via @datavis.

Data Fiction: Storytelling with Information Graphics

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:53:31 +1100

The combination of storytelling and information visualization has been long predicted, although still very few examples do exist. On the other hand, some might claim typical information aesthetic visualization is all about tell a compelling story.

Following project takes infographic storytelling one (literal) step further: Sumedicina [janalange.de] is the title of a fictional thriller story about an international virus scandal, and is mainly told through the medium of infographics.

One might not feel completely sure whether this is just an excuse to create a collection of visually impressive infographic representations, or whether the narrative of the story is somehow hidden within the graphs. Answer: the short notes below the graphs at the Flickr collection reveal it is probably a combination of the two.

Huge Interactive Signpost Shows the Direction to Favorite Locations

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:00:14 +1100

This gigantic, interactive signpost sponsored by Nokia Ovi Maps in the form of a dynamically rotating electronic LED screen allows passers-by to send in their favorite location and coordinates via text or email. The giant pointer, hung on a 60ton construction on height of 50m, then automatically rotates to the given direction and displays the submitted description to the world.

Watch the documentary video below.

See also the Nokia Blog [1,2] and FarFar. Via Engadget.

Ward Shelley: Infovis Oil Painting Artist

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:35:40 +1100

Unknown to me before, visual (infovis?) artist Ward Shelley [wardshelley.com] comes as a refreshing surprise.

Shalley's impressive oil paintings and pencil drawings use real information in an attempt to depict the understanding of how things evolve and relate to one another, and how this develops over time. Usual topics range from art or cultural history, such as the arc of an artist's career and its influences, or the effect of particular ideas in an aesthetic or political movement. The paintings are interpreted as being "wide-screen", as all information is available to the interacting eye at every moment.

These works are full of compact information, which takes months to collect and organize. The designs are done with pencil on paper because each piece goes through constant revisions during this time. 3 different versions of the painting are made from same information. Normally the pencil drawing goes through minor changes from version to version, and the painting is entirely different, using different colors and brushwork.

Thnkx Irene.

Information Landscapes in 1994 (MIT Prof Muriel Cooper)

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:32:42 +1100

Back in 1994, Muriel Cooper, one of the co-founders of the MIT Media Lab where she taught interactive media design as the head of the Visible Language Workshop, presented her work at the TED5 conference in Monterey, CA.

Her presentation would initiate a new era of data visualization, and it changed the way designers thought of the possibilities of electronic media. (Maybe quite similar to how David Small's dynamic renditions of text changed my way of thinking about 3D visualization). Her work was revolutionary as it pushed typography into the 3 spatial dimensions, and augmented it with dynamics, animation and interactivity. Tragically, it was just after this event that she passed away.

Since many years, David Young has carried around an old VHS tape that demonstrated this work, to show it to students as an example of Muriel's vision and as an inspiration to push creative boundaries (or, as told in the film: "We must reexamine the current stultifying interface standards and metaphors. We must define a rich vocabulary, tools and design strategies that are applicable to any information domain and to this multidimensional world"). He has finally digitized the tape and has posted it online for all to see (see the movie below).

"The work is a beautiful demonstration of the ideas that Muriel had been pursuing for much of her career. Dynamics, interactivity, typography, and live data. For this video she used the titles "Designing and information landscape in time and space" and "The dynamic visualization of information in two and three dimensions."

For more information about Muriel Cooper, you should read Muriel Cooper's Visible Wisdom" by Janet Abrams.

Note: Image above taken from the Talmud Project by David Small, and Financial Viewpoints, by Lisa Strausfeld.

Making Digital Content on the Mobile Phone Physically Graspable

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:17:17 +1100

Fabian Hemmert [fabianhemmert.com] tries to solve the question "How to Make Digital Content Graspable?" in a quite original way. In his short TEDx talk, and the according movie which you can watch below, you can check out his innovative inventions to depict and interface with data on a mobile phone through three different ways.

The weight-shifting method allows a phone to communicate to users where to walk by dynamically changing its gravitational center along two axes. The shape-changing method is able to convey where more information is located outside of the screen by changing the thickness of a phone at its corners. And lastly, the 'living' method allows a mobile phone to display emotional states due to a continuous heartbeat and breathing-like motion that can be felt ambiently in your trouser pocket.

World Map of Barcelona Natural Science Museum Biodiversity Data

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:40:48 +1100

The Natural Science Museum of Barcelona Data Base [bioexplora.cat] contains more than 150 years worth of biological records collected around the world by the Natural Science Museum in Barcelona. The database consists of about 50.000 different records of mollusc, vertebrata and artropodes. All the information is structured following the Darwin Core Standard, developed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The interactive map allows users to drag and zoom, turn on or off geographical layers, click on an active 'square' to download all the registers located in the selected area. Circular frames show the detailed locations of individual finds.

The Feltron Annual Report of 2009

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:44:25 +1100

As one of those happy-to-look-forward-to yearly traditions (see also the 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005 versions), infographic designer Nicholas Felton has again released a sophisticated infographic report [feltron.com] detailing almost all his past everyday and special activities and visited events during the timespan of last year.

The data he tracks each single day (each single minute?) seems to be more and more detailed each single year, and now include a wide variety of topics such as: encounters (average encounters per day: 4.8), relationships (shortest relationship: 5 minutes), location and methods of transportation (number of different methods: 23), mood (types of negative mood: 80), food consumption (New York restaurants visited: 111), drink consumption (most "reported" beverage: beer) and little things (unfortunate incidents: 4).

Thnkx Tim!

Art Meets Energy Consumption Visualization (in Helsinki)

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:29:03 +1100

Inspired by the Ars Electronica Golden Nica-winning Nuage Vert project, Pixelache, an informally organised network of electronic art festivals, and Helsingin Energia, one of the largest energy companies in Finland, are collaborating to produce artworks related to the collective energy consumption in the Helsinki area. A selection of artists were invited to submit proposals for artworks, of which the very best will be built within the public space in Helsinki or presented as online web projects. The proposals for these artworks can be found at the "Art & Energy" [pixelache.ac] webpage.

They include "Human Viz", a series of unpredictable events, implemented by human action, visualizing Helsinki Energia's energy consumption data. Flash mobs, sudden gatherings of people of different ages and backgrounds, would occur at specific locations to convey the representative red and blue colors from an online diagram of current heat and electricity. (See also Human-Driven Media Facade). "Andy Best" is a kinetic sculpture that reacts to the current energy usage, and could be produced in any scale, from table top objects for the home or office, to a large public sculpture for a whole neighborhood (see also Vision Energy Sculpture).

"Blink Helsinki aka Blink at Home" is a collective effort to draw attention to energy consumption on city wide level, by inviting individual households to blink their lights at a predetermined visual pattern revealing energy consumption in Helsinki. "Energy Fame" paints the energy levels as projected light onto people, turning them into representations of their energy use, as citizens of Finland. "Hot Lights" connects Helsinki's use of district heating to its public, urban outdoor lighting system: when heat consumption is high, street lamps will pulsate slowly.

Thnkx Monika!

PS. For more physical visualizations of sustainability-related issues, check out the 3 finalists of San Jose's Climate Clock Challenge that was organized last year.

A Year in Iraq and Afghanistan

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:22:29 +1100

This tip came to me with the sneaky message "The New York Times starts off the year with what could be the least informative graphic of '10". Well, is it?

In fact, regular readers readers might notice this is an almost yearly re-occuring infosthetics post, as one might remember "Comparing US Soldier Casualty Statistics in Iraq and Afghanistan" from February last year, and Iraq Casualties for Dummies back in 2007. In spite of the many comments and suggestions that especially the 2007 post generated, the visual and infographic style was kept consistent.

In short, the infographic titled "A Year in Iraq and Afghanistan" (PDF, 7.5MB!) [nytimes.com] accompanies an "Op-Chart", meaning that it was designed outside of the NYTimes Infographics Department. Based on data from icasualties.org and the Pentagon, the chart shows how the death toll in Afghanistan is up by 40 percent from last year, and that most of the deaths are occurring on the battlefield, unlike in Iraq, where half the fatalities were not related to combat. In addition, while many see the war in Afghanistan as an American effort, the colors on the chart show the extent to which the Western allies are sharing the deadly burden.

Thnkx John!

hint.fm: The Joy of Revelation through Expressive Visualization

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:36:03 +1100

Two of the very best visualization designers and researchers around today, Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, have started a new website, titled Hint.fm [hint.fm] (or it exists much longer and I just didn't know). The website collects their past presentations, publications, exhibitions, press coverage, and all of their works, of which Many Eyes, FleshMap, and Phrase Nets are just a few. Most projects are remarkable in their apparent focus on combining the aspects of beauty and story-telling through the presentation data. As they state themselves in the colophon, "Unlike ... traditional uses, we believe visualization to be an expressive medium that invites emotion."

Two latest project stand out. "Flickr Flow" is based on a large collection of photographs of the Boston Common taken from Flickr. A specifically design algorithm calculates the relative proportions of different colors seen in photos taken in each month of the year, and plotted them on a wheel. The resulting diagram picks up the ebb and flow of seasonal colors.

Web Seer" attempts to visualize people's innermost thoughts by using data originating from Google Suggest (the drop-down box that guesses your search query while you write). The interactive tool contrast two separate search queries, as it highlights the commonly shared and opposite suggestions proposed by the Google algorithm. The arrow thicknesses show the number of web pages for each question. Insightful examples include "are Democrats" versus "are Republicans", or "shopping for men" versus "shopping for women". Both authors describe a qualitative analysis of the resulting graphs at a recent op-ed ("op-chart") in The New York Times.

Chart Wars: The Political Power of Data Visualization

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:32:42 +1100

A great, short talk by TargetPoint's VP and Director of Research, Alex Lundry, at DC Ignite. He addresses the issues of subjective messaging through visualization, the emergence of open data, some ideal data visualization tools, a set of quick lessons in graphic literacy, and a short list of recommended visualization books, all within the time span of 5 minutes.

Watch the movie below.

See also Political Chart Wars for more information about the subject. Via Sunlight Foundation Blog.

Grand Tour of the Known Universe

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:11:00 +1100

The movie titled "Known Universe" takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

Every satellite, moon, planet, star and galaxy is represented to scale and its correct, measured location according to the best scientific research to-date.

Watch the video below.

A Day in the Life of NYTimes.com: Visualizing Website Traffic Data

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:01:55 +1100

"A Day in the Life of NYTimes.com" [bits.blogs.nytimes.com] includes two videos (also shown below) that show the traffic to NYTimes.com on June 25, 2009, the day Michael Jackson died. While on video focuses on US-only traffic, the other has a worldwide view. The animated maps also include a subtle visual hint of night time by revealing the city illumination at night.The 24-hour period of web log data is compressed into a little over a minute and a half.

The data used to create these maps come from roughly 15 Web servers. Some of the mobile bursts on the maps are a result of compressing the data.

Thnkx Owen!

Visualizar'09 - Public Data, Data in Public: Projects Overview

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:20:43 +1100

The third edition of Visualizar is now finished and the projects developed during the workshop can be visited until the 17th of January in the Medialab Prado in Madrid. The exhibition shows the results of the two weeks of work - from 14 to 27 of November - when participants refined concepts, gathered and parsed necessary data and prototyped the visualizations. After this time, outcomes were quite diverse, varying according to the nature of concepts, the available data and number of contributors. Here is an overview.

The New Political Interfaces [newpoliticalinterfaces.org] aims to visualize the influence of new means of communication in politics. Inspired by the influence of social networking systems in the Obama campaign, the team looked into content generated by official sources and political parties, in contrast to those generated by individuals in online systems. Using data from Twitter, they developed beautiful visualizations to correlate official and personal information regarding the last presidential election in United States. The authors, Cristóbal Castilla, Héctor Sánchez-Pajares and José Hernández, all from Aer studio consider the state of their project as a sketch, and are already working to add further informational layers, and to expand the analysis to other social networking systems.

In What do they have? Alternate Visualizations of Museum Collections , Piotr Adamczyk aggregates and presents data from several art museums around the world. According to Piotr, visualizing public data about global cultural heritage can suggest how a culture sees another and lead to a more open discussion about how the story of public culture is being told. Kultur-o-meter [kulturometer.org/] by Pablo Rey, Mar Núñez and Traficantes de Sueños deals with cultural institutions in a different way. It shows the amount of resources that is allocated to each cultural niche of Madrid. By zooming (click to see full-rez version) into the graphic it is possible to see, for example, that the Medialab Prado corresponds to less than 0,5% of the total cultural budget of Madrid City Hall.

The Piratepie [thepiratepie.org] of Mar Canet, Jaume Nualart, and David Stolarsky, from Future Lab and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, aims to be a "piracy monitor" that would describe how, where and when Internet piracy occurs. By structuring data of all bittorent files indexed by The Pirate Bay, the team developed several visualizations such as the Pirate Voyager, an analogy to the Baby Name Voyager, and the Area Map, illustrated above, that displays quantitative data according to parameters set on the interface.

The FLUflux project shows correlations among US international flights and global pandemics. The authors Jihyun Kim and Andrés Colubri, authors of the project reckon that the influx of people traveling around the world reflects historical events. In the FLUflux interactive prototype, when a disease is selected, a diagram is presented in which each circle represents a country, while the central one represents the United States. The dataset chosen focused on the United States due to data constraints: it is only only country data makes extensive flight information available online. Connecting lines become shorter when the flux of passengers increases. Selecting a line or circle restricts data to the country that corresponds to the selected element.

In Evolution of Innovation. A visual history of patent registrations during the last decades Leonardo Solaas developed classical visualizations to show the evolution of patent registrations over time. He uses a stacked graph to show amounts of registered patents over time (picture below), a tag cloud to display trends of subjects and a network diagram to show citation patterns.

Hydro Status of Now, designed by Keyvan Minoukadeh and Katrin Caspar, was the most popular project among contributors, counting on 10 volunteers. With all this task force and because the theme can be approached in many ways, the group developed a set of different visualizations, ranging from videos to static graphs and flash prototypes. One such visualization (click to full-rez version) shows the correlation between availability and consumption of water in different countries. Each element represents a country and linking lines represent shared geographical borders. The aim was to raise questions about political relations and to display possibilities of water trading.

Also approaching the theme "water", the River Project [territoriosvivos.org], developed visualizations of the quality of water in rivers of Madrid. Data was gathered by the project itself, and the team even scheduled a visit to a river close Madrid inviting other participants to take part.

The reliability of datasets, a common problem of many information architects, was approached by Jonás Fernández Reviejo, Víctor Rodrigo Gudiel, and Miguel Valero Espada, in Surveillance under control. The team developed a tool to check the validity of datasets based on Benford's Law. With the toll it is possible to apply the law to databases and to visualize the deviation of its data.

Finally, the project In the Air [intheair.es], its web-version having already being featured in this blog, was invited by the Medialab to take part in the workshop, and develop an application for its new digital facade. One of the final data visualizations, displayed above, translated air polluting substances into colors, and displays amounts amounts of such substances through variation of saturation and brightness.

Many of the projects described above are still being improved or extended - also to include stable online versions of final prototypes. The overall wish to improve projects is also a result of the rich atmosphere created by participants, tutors and the Medialab staff during the two weeks of hard work. The mix of people from different backgrounds contributed to question predefined concepts, while new ideas and future work groups emerged from the intense atmosphere of living together through attending the workshop. The exhibition shows the good work developed in the short time frame of the workshop, but further results are still to be seen. You can also read more information at Visualizar's own overview.

This post has been written by Larissa Pschetz, interaction designer living and working in Hamburg, Germany.